The only decent solution to the current copyright mess on the internet is the dramatic expansion of fair use rights to include all non-commercial use of all media.

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Lending books will destroy something--I'm just not sure what.

So lendink.com is a site where you can loan and borrow ebooks legally. I use "legally" with a little circumspection--I don't believe the law has been worked out on it, but I use it in the sense that everyone should agree that it is okay.

I still think they're trolling, and I applaud them for it.

You can be sure that Amazon and Barnes and Noble only enable the "loaning" of e-books because even most folks would be offended at not being able to do so. And that wellspring of common sense, in the end, is the only thing that can keep the internet free.

However, imagine if everyone who buys e-books uses this service? After all, after you finish reading an e-book, why wouldn't you put it on the loan service? How often do you re-read a book? You probably don't even keep it on your kindle.

Over time, this will result in a very large library of "loan-able" ebooks. As in, you won't have to buy many books.

Perhaps that will help folks understand how incredibly stupid the idea of loaning an electronic file is.

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About Me

I've loved computers since I was ten years old when I got to play with a TRS-80 in the classroom. I've also loved to read since I read the Chronicles of Narnia at that same age. Those were the books that convinced me that the greatest thing someone could be was a writer. I'm still working on that. In the meantime I developed a video game which I personally uploaded to the Pirate Bay. Please pirate it. Blogging isn't really writing, of course, but just saying stuff. That being said, there is some stuff that I think needs to be said, and so I'm trying to say it.